In a ruling dated September 17, 2025, the District Court in Prešov ordered the municipality of Torysa to refrain from demolishing the home of a family from a marginalized Roma community. This is a landmark decision – the first case in Slovakia where a court has protected a dwelling threatened with demolition by a local authority. In its reasoning, the court emphasized that even dwellings built without a building permit can be a “home” within the meaning of the Slovak Constitution and international law. The court also stated that demolishing the dwelling would be contrary to good morals, as the municipality had long tolerated the existence of illegal dwellings in the marginalized Roma community.


In this case, we provided the plaintiff with free legal representation as part of our program of strategic litigation in cases of discrimination against the Roma minority.